Betsy's Blog at LumberJocks.comhttp://lumberjocks.com/Betsy/blog
Mon, 11 Jan 2016 03:56:12 GMTCutting Board Primer #7: Starting on end grainhttp://lumberjocks.com/Betsy/blog/75434
Hopefully you all had a good long holiday with family and friends. I certainly did and I took advantage of the time to rest up and rejuvenate. I had an amazing sales month but it was exhausting so I really needed time away from the shop but now I’m slowing getting back in the swing of things and getting ready for my first 2016 show in March.

So now we move onto end grain cutting boards.

Some general rules about end grain boards:1. They all start off as face grain boards;2. The thickness of your face grain board will equal the width of each slice turned on its edge (i.e. if your panel has been thickness planed to ½” then each slice will be ½” when turned on its edge);3. The thickness of the finished end grain board is determined by the width of the slices you cut from the face grain panel (if you slice your board at 1.5” then the board will be 1.5” tall/thick);4. Each slice is turned on it’s edge to expose the end grain;5. In a simple end grain board your pattern is made by flipping every other slice;6. You are gluing face grain to face grain;7. It’s infinitely easier to mess up your pattern when doing the glue up on a end grain board than on a face grain board – been there, done that, got the tee-shirt.

1. They all start off as face grain boards.

All steps making a face grain board are the basis of building end grain boards There’s very little difference. However, for an end grain board your beginning face grain board has to be set up so that when you get to the flipping slice stage there is some offset of pieces to make the pattern.

As an example: The following board is made by flipping every other slice.

The next board is still a good face grain board – but if you flip the slices you end up with the same pattern as if you didn’t flip them at all.

Now add one more walnut board to that same plan then flip every other slice and you get a nice pattern.

Using a cutting board designer program helps with making a pattern – you can experiment and not waste a single board foot of lumber. The designer program I use can be found here: www.1024studios.com/cuttingboard.html. It’s a terrific program and easy to use. For you Mac users you are out of luck as this particular program only runs on Windows. I understand there is a way to run Windows on the Mac – but I have no idea how that works – so you’re on your own on this issue.

2. The thickness of your face grain board will equal the width of each slice turned on its edge (i.e. if your initial face grain panel has been thickness planed to ½” then each slice will be ½” wide when turned on its edge);

If working with a board that requires two or more panels – making both panels at different thickness/width to make one board adds interesting details to the finished board.

3. The thickness of the finished end grain board is determined by the width of the slices you cut from the face grain panel (if you slice your board at 1.5” then the board will be 1.5” tall/thick);

4. Each slice is turned on it’s edge to expose the end grain. Once you’ve made your cuts to the panel, each slice is turned on it’s edge so that the end grain gets exposed.

5. In a simple end grain board your pattern is made by flipping every other slice. That would be flipped end for endnot from left to right.

6. You are gluing face grain to face grain; When you glued your initial panel you were gluing edge grain to edge grain in a butt joint. No mechanical assistance is needed to make a good bond – i.e. no screws, no nails or dowels are needed.

7. It’s infinitely easier to mess up your pattern when doing the glue up on a end grain board than on a face grain board – been there, done that, got the tee-shirt. Generally once flipped you would have a dark, light, dark, light sequence (from left to right or right to left however you like). I always just double check the sequence by actually touching each piece and mumbling under my breath light, dark, light, dark, light dark and so on. If I hit a light, light, dark – I’ve messed up catch my mistake before gluing. if you get into doing two or three panel boards it’s even easier to screw up – so you need to find a system of keeping track of your pieces as you go along.

Let’s back up just a little bit and go to the cutting slices stage. This can be a problem stage on getting all the slices the same. If you’ve already tried an end grain board and realize the some of your slices are taller than others or when you put all your slices next to each other you find some that are taller on one end is shorter on the other, the problem could be that your stop block moved or that you failed to notice a gap between your workpiece and the face of your crosscut sled. If you have the taller on one end shorter on the other then more than likely there was a gap between your sled and the panel. You simply need to find out what caused the gap and remove it. You probably will need to trim the end of your panel so that it’s straight again and not compounding the problem in the opposite direction.

When you’ve finished your slicing you should put all your slices side by side and make sure they are all the same height. When doing this check both sides of each slice to see if you have any burn marks. Hopefully you don’t have any burn marks, but if you do, depending on how you plan to smooth your glued up board, will depend on how you may want to address the burn marks. In my opinion, you will save yourself time and effort by taking off that burn mark before you glue up the board. It’s easy enough to just shave a tiny bit off of the slices at the table saw. Generally it can be a skim cut. If you do this method – you must skim cut ALL of the pieces so that they remain the same height.

In theory, when you are ready to glue your board all of the pieces should be square and, therefore, the corners of your pattern through the board should match up like they do on your paper/computer pattern. However, if they do not – your board may not be what you envisioned but it’s not a lost cause. You can do several things (I’m sure there are more). One is to simply adjust the corners to fit the way you want and deal with the uneven edges of the board by slicing them off at the table saw. However, if the fit is way off, or just off more than you like, you may choose to use a little eye trickery. By putting slices of a solid color between each slice you move the corners away from each other and the eye is less likely to see that the corners do not match.

Now as for glue ups. I’m of the opinion of just a tiny bit of squeeze out is a good thing. You don’t want to be sloppy with the glue on an end grain board. You have to be aware that any liquid will seep into the pores of an end grain board. Glue is liquid – now this is only my opinion but it makes since to me, but you don’t want glue to clog up your pores because then your oil will not soak in. This is why I’m not a “wiper” when I glue end grain boards. I let the glue set to a consistency that I can shave it off with a dullish old chisel.

One thing about the clogging up the pores thought. I don’t know how deep the glue could get before it hardens. Since glue is pretty thick it may not penetrate far at all and planing or sanding may deal with the clogs but since I don’t know the answer, I err on the side of caution and don’t wipe up excess glue.

Now as to the smoothing the glued up board to prepare for edging and sanding. This can be done with a hand plane, a belt sander, a random orbital sander, or an electric planer. Your glue up technique really plays a role here. If you have a lot of high/low spots you’ve got a lot of work to do. But if your glue up is good and you start with a pretty even board to start with you’ll thank yourself at this stage.

The lingering problems from past health issues means I don’t have the hand strength to do hand planing and have no desire to smooth a board with an electric sander. Both methods are used every day by many woodworkers to great affect. But my preference is to use a electric planer. This is a very controversial method. If you are new to woodworking IT IS NOT the method I would advise you to use. Planing end grain is a very dangerous method – if you try to take off too much in a pass the board could blow up in the planer sending pieces of the board like projectiles. You can be injured easily and you could, at a minimum damage your planer beyond repair.

With all that said, if you are comfortable with using a planer all I can tell you is what I do – I’m NOT telling you to use my method – but since this is my blog and I figure I need to be honest about my method. My first thing is to make sure my slices are all good, all the same height, etc. I make sure my glue up is absolutely dead on flat, and I glue on a sacrificial pine board on both ends of my board to deal with any tear out which will happen on any end grain board that is not pre-cut or protected with a sacrificial board. I sneak up on the cut and once I make contact with my board I barely change the height on each pass. “Barely change” is I gently bump my height wheel. Because my glue ups are good, I generally only have to pass the board through the planer two or three “barely bumping” times on each side. Once I’m happy with the finish I can sand with a hand sander from 100 to 150 to 200 and I’m ready for oil.

I realize that using an electric planer is very controversial but I can honestly say that I’ve been doing this method since I started making boards which is a long time ago and ALL of my end grain boards go through the planer. I’ve never had an issue with an end grain board. (I did have some curly maple blow up on me and got a piece caught in my planer fan, but thankfully, the machine was not damaged beyond repair.)

I only use mineral oil on my boards. I do use bees wax from time to time, but plain oil is my preference. Because I do so many boards at a time, I keep oil in a tub and soak each board 15 minutes. I determined the time by experimenting with some boards sacrificed to the experiment. I soaked boards at different time periods, let them dry and then cut them in half to see how far the oil penetrated with each time period. 15 minutes won out.

So I hope all of the above helps you out a bit. I’m open to questions and any comments. (I will say I know some will want to take issue with using an electric planer, but like I said earlier – I’m not recommending it – just being honest of how I do things.)

Happy WW’ing to all and to all a good night!

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Mon, 11 Jan 2016 03:56:12 GMThttp://lumberjocks.com/Betsy/blog/75434BetsyBetsyCutting Board Primer #6: End Grain Portionhttp://lumberjocks.com/Betsy/blog/74138
Well – I’ve certainly fallen behind on my blog. My apologies for not getting it finished by now. I got absolutely slammed for Christmas. I did three shows in December and did a lot of one on one selling and had my day job going on. Between all that I’m just plum wore out. So I’m resting this week and the weekend and will get back in the shop on Monday the 4th and start working on the end grain portion of the blog.

Hopefully the first portion of my blog helped someone before Christmas.

Either way – the rule of the shop with scrap is this and always this: You will have scrap, you will never scrape the bottom of the scrap bin and you will always wonder how the bin got so full so fast.

Second reality of scrap is that no matter how much scrap you have you’ll almost never find that one piece that will fit the project at hand. Hence the “absolute need” to go to the lumberyard to buy more lumber.

Third fact – you just have to live with it and learn to accept it as a fact of life in the woodshop.

The really good news is there are ways to manage it. For me the number one way is use the scrap for my face grain boards and/or to use it up in the infamous chaos boards that are so popular these days.

I have several rules with the scrap bin.1. I don’t put in the really ratty pieces that have knots; splits, or other major defects. I cut out those defects before the board hits the bin. This means that the only wood in my bin is usable pieces.2. I try to only put in pieces with both edges clean. This is a rule that I, unfortunately, break on a regular basis. When the bin is fresh I start off really well but as time goes by this rule is broken.3. If a piece is too thin to be put through the planer and it’s not clear on both sides, I toss it.

To manage the scrap pile you really have to be brutal on what you will keep and not keep. Otherwise you’ll be overrun.

With all that said, this is what I have today:

There’s quite a lot in these two boxes – which is good for me. I need to make quite a few face grain boards so I’ll get a lot out of these two boxes.

Despite my rules I do have some boards to clean up. This particular one has two issues, a small knot and an edge that is not acceptable for gluing.

The next pictures are from a different board as I managed to delete the pictures of my steps – no idea how – but there it is. So try to pretend that the following is the same as the piece above.

You can see that my knot is also on an “unclean edge.” I could simply place the board such that I cut the board right at the knot and not worry about the edge.

But if I take ten seconds and clean up the edge first then after I slice the knot out I can then cut the knot out of the ¼” portion of the original board and have yet another piece of scrap to use for another project. How wonderful is that!

The next picture shows a common issue that I used to say “so what” about. It didn’t take long to realize that some of my bad joints were the result of the fact that I let things like this slide.

You can see in the picture that dark mark. That’s a burn but when is almost impossible to see is that there is a crescent mark that resulted from poor cutting on my part. This type of burning or mark needs to be taken off of the board.

I’ve always understood that a burn on a board essentially seals the fibers of the board and can impede a good glue joint leading to a failure. I can’t say that I have a good source to back that statement up, but it makes sense to me. The crescent will create a small gap in the joint. Either issue is easily taken care of. Set your blade so that it barely kisses the board, set the featherboard to hold the piece hard to the fence and push it through.

A few words about gluing:This seems pretty simple – but don’t use old, tacky or “doesn’t look right” glue. My rule is that if glue has been around a year or more; or it’s been frozen or heated – just get rid of it. Believe it or not glue does have a shelf life and can go bad. There is, of course, opinions on this issue. Some say as long as the glue flows easily it should be okay, others say that it starts to degrade over time. I use about two gallons of glue a selling season on my boards so I don’t have the time issue. However, because I live in Texas, I am careful to keep the glue stored in the house and not in the uncooled garage. Long and short, if it’s old, flows like oatmeal or looks odd – toss it out and get a new bottle.

Squeeze out – now here is a spot that you’ll get arguments to rival politics. Do you clean up squeeze out as soon as you’re done clamping, do you use a wet rag, do you wait until the glue hardens then scrape like mad with a paint scraper, do you let the glue skim over then scrape with a putty knife, do you let it dry then run it through the planer? Lots of opinions. This is, in my humble opinion, more of an issue and a more important one, when you are talking about projects involving stain – such as furniture. However, because we are talking cutting boards that will not be stained – I think the dynamics are different.

What do I do? First off, I try to keep my squeeze out to a minimum (as stated in early blog post). I admit that I’m a wiper. I get my clamps set then use a paper towel and clean up the squeeze out. On face grain boards this is not an issue. Since all of my boards go through the planer, I’m not at all worried about the possibility of a little skim of glue on the surface. I’m more concerned about a hard piece of glue causing a knick on my planer knives. (I do have a different opinion on end grain boards – but it’s not much different.)

Now what about keeping the glue off of the clamps. Some people wax their clamps and swear by it. I’ve not had any luck with that. I protect my clamps using either wax paper or painter’s tape. I’ve tried different methods of placing the wax paper on the pipe. I’ve used the crease and make a tent method:

The problem with the tent is three-fold. One you have to use enough paper to cover the pipe and reach the tabletop. Secondly, it moves! I got frustrated with this method because as I would move my wood to glue or reposition it the paper would move. Third, and finally, because it may move, it can get bunched up and can get in between my work pieces causing more problems than I care to mention. So I skip this method and use much less wax paper by simply taping it in place with a little sliver of scotch tape. The paper doesn’t move and it’s easily removed when the clamps come off.

Now, despite using paper and/or painter’s tape, I still get glue on the pipes. I’m the type of person that can get dirty doing the laundry so not being about to keep the glue completely off of my pipes is not a stretch for me. So here’s your bonus tip. Every 5 or 6 months I’ll sort through my clamps and will set about cleaning up any dried on glue. On regular pipe clamps the glue will sometimes just pop off with a good push of a putty knife. Doesn’t happen often enough for me. I end up using good old vinegar to clean up the clamps. All I do is soak some paper towels and wrap the pipe. Let it sit for an hour or so, remove the towels and wipe off the glue. The vinegar stinks so I usually do this outside on a nice sunny day.

Okay that’s all I’ve got today. The next entry I’ll try to hit up some “opps how do you fix this” tips.

As always, comments and suggestions are welcome.

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Sat, 28 Nov 2015 04:49:32 GMThttp://lumberjocks.com/Betsy/blog/71554BetsyBetsyCutting Board Primer #4: Face Grain #4 - short note on clampinghttp://lumberjocks.com/Betsy/blog/70610
Just a short entry tonight – I had a monster show this weekend so I’m going to be making lots of dust between now and Thanksgiving to restock. I plan to take lots of pictures and post short blog entries while I take breaks in working.

I want to circle back a step to address one piece of business on clamps from the last entry. It’s not a job breaker – but when I clamp my projects I make sure that all of my bottom clamps are the same size and height. This avoids having have several issues. The photo below, while quite exaggerated to show the point, will highlight two issues.The first issue is that center clamp has a large gap between its top surface and the bottom of the work piece. Obviously you now have an unsupported section of your board. Your board needs support along the entire length. Now, while I’ve never done this – did you hear me clear my throat – if you have a habit of pushing the boards downward while using your other hand to turn the crank – then having a clamp that is not the same height as the others while in all likelihood end up giving you a bowed board. I found pushing down on the board helps to avoid the individual boards slipping upward with the clamp pressure and the slick nature of the glue. Using a caul system would also deal with slippage.

The second issue is that the clamp head needs to have more “bite” on the side of the board so that it actually acts as a clamp and not as an impediment to a good glue joint. If you tighten up that center clamp with it sitting like it is all you’ll manage to do is make the board want to come up and squeeze out of the clamp like a bar of soap spurts out of your wet hands.

I’m not going to even try to fake knowing how to explain clamping torque or how even pressure really works – but let it suffice to say – try to use all the same height clamps on your board and make sure you have plenty of bite on the board with your clamp head. I have seen some woodworkers use platforms to lay out their boards and if you use that system the height of your bottom clamps become a none issue.

Okay – I said short. Back to the shop for me. I’ll post more later in the week. I hope this helps someone out there.

My admission is here that I use more clamps than necessary. Now that’s not a job killer – but it can seriously deplete your clamp store while you are doing a run of boards. The general rule of one clamp under, one clamp on top, one clamp under, etc. is basically what I follow.

Let’s discuss the “elephant-in-the-room” issue first – clamping pressure. My general rule is a good fitting joint needs to have just enough glue to have a small bead of squeeze out, and just enough pressure to hold the piece together while the glue dries/cures. While these two elements might be hard to gauge – clamping pressure seems to be the hardest to get a handle on. The cranks on most clamps I think give you a false sense of how much is too much. I’ve seen guys in some of my classes I’ve taught and some of the ones I’ve taken be absolute gorillas in tightening clamps. If your joints are good and you don’t start with too little glue – a snug fit is good enough. Being a gorilla in the wilds of Africa where your strength is the test of the top-gorilla, in the shop being a gorilla has the potential to starve your joint of glue leading to a failed joint. Snug is, of course, a subjective concept and hard to quantify. But my gauge is that I tighten the clamp until it contacts the wood and I can’t move the clamp from side to side. I then do an additional ½ to ¾ turn and stop. If you have zero squeeze out you may need to tighten a little more – HOWEVER, you may also have not used enough glue.

With all that said – there’s a lot more to clamping than my simple explanation – you have to take into account, the wood type (hard or soft), grain types, the type of joint and so on. It’s a subject all in itself and I’ve oversimplified it here. If you want to Google clamping pressure you’ll be inundated with articles, suggestions, opinions, etc. Just remember that you start small and build in your knowledge – if you are just starting in woodworking don’t out think yourself. A lot of this stuff is intuitive, some of it is learn-as-you-go, make a bum project, figure out what went wrong, or read and read and read. Can’t learn it all in one go or on one project.

You can do the same with glue – you can drive yourself crazy looking at every article and every blog on the subject but really it comes down to try one, decide if it does the job for you, try another and so on. I’m not saying study up a little – but if all you do is read, watch, listen etc. you may not have time to do any actual woodworking. Don’t drown in the minutia.

Now as to clamps – if you are using the pistol grip clamps – those are pretty flimsy and you will need to squeeze those are hard as you possibly can – gorilla away on those. But my opinion – on a board/panel/cabinet or whatever you want to be sure is clamped well stick with pipe clamps, bar clamps or the K-clamps. Pistol grips have their uses – but I don’t use them on my boards.

Long and short, a good joint, the right amount of glue and the correct clamping pressure are all three components that need to be used together to end up with a successful project.

My initial clamp set up is to have 3 clamps as bottom clamps spaced at 1-2” in from each end and one in the middle. That’s my base – when my board is clamped securely I add a clamp between the middle clamp and each end. So generally I end up with 5 clamps. (The picture below is not the same board – forgot to take a picture of the board I’m doing.)

After setting up my clamps I do a dry fit – this is where you place your boards in the order you need onto the clamps, snug the clamps up and carefully look at the joints. You want to see if there are any gaps, knick or stray chips that may keep your joints from closing up correctly. My board has a fuzz issue. As you may recall from the first section of this blog – when I cut my thin strips they had fuzz on the edges. I pulled one slice up to show the fuzz.

The fuzz has to go. This is a spot where you can really foul up your project. The fuzz needs to go but you just can’t hit it with sandpaper and make it go away – you have to sand it carefully. That means placing it on a hard, flat surface and lightly sanding it clean. You don’t want to sand so much that you round the corners. If you round the corners you can end up with this.

The photo is exaggerated – but if you round over the edges of your pieces you create a gap. The gap can be overcome by sanding a great deal or planning the board down below the rounding but avoiding it is best. For the most part I use a block wrapped with paper. I use very light swipes and I try to sand evenly along the length. When you put it back after sanding you should look more like this (the board is not clamped – so there is a gap toward the bottom but you get the idea).

So once you are sure that all of your joints are good with no fuzz or stray chips etc. it’s time to glue. Every woodworker has her/his own theory on how to apply glue. Some use a gallon of glue on every joint, others use just barely enough. Try to find a happy medium. Too much glue leads to a ton of squeeze out that has to be dealt with (not to mention the expense), it takes the joint longer to cure and generally creates a mess. Too little glue can lead to what is called a starved joint, which is, essentially, a failed joint.

Another consideration is your application method. Most will use the glue bottle to get the glue onto the joint. Where we deviate is will we use our god given appendage to spread the glue, a brush, a roller or whatever. I admit for a very long time I used my finger. Never lost it, never had to look for the box of brushes or rollers, and it washes easily. This worked well while I only did a few projects. Now that I’m doing a truckload of boards the finger is simple not up to the task. The glue can dry out your skin and lead to cracks, etc. Now I most often use an acid brush. I will say that if you are going to use a brush or a roller – you need to take into account that some of your glue will be sucked up into the tool and away from the joint so you need to take that into account when you apply your bead of glue. This is about right for me:

Let me back up one step. You also need to consider where you are going to place the glue bead. Some swear by putting glue on both sides of the work piece, others swear by gluing one side of each piece. I go with one side. I’ve never had a failed joint so I don’t see the need to use the extra glue. All that glue adds up over time and can eat into any profit margin you may be considering.I start my glue up procedure by standing my boards on one edge.

You’ll notice in the picture that I have marked “glue” or “g” on all the edges. I don’t do that all of the time but I did this time to illustrate where I intend to place my glue. You’ll also notice that I do not set the very last (furthest away) board on its edge. That board will not receive glue as it will get its glue from the board before. Once the glue is spread each board is then turned flat and the adjacent board butted against it.

One other thing about my glue ups. I add a waste piece on each end of my board blank. The waste piece is always about 4-6” longer on each end. (If my project board is 10 inches then I have 18” waste pieces.) The reason for this is I will be putting the blank through the planer. The extra length will take up any snipe that I may get from the planer knives – leading to less sanding which is always a good thing.

Once all boards are put down flat I first pull in the center clamp and snug it up very slightly. Then I pull each end in and snug those up. Personally, I snug up each clamp a little at a time watching that I don’t accidently get a board to ride up above the level of the others. Once you start to snug up clamps you’ll notice that side-to-side slippage may occur. This is just the two boards sliding against each other with the wet glue. If you have some wiggle room in the length of your boards it’s not that big of a deal. But if you are very close to limit the of what you can cut then you just need to adjust for the slippage.

Another thing that some folks use are cauls on their glue ups and I do as well on the larger boards. For one this skinny I don’t use them. But it’s good to have cauls to work with.

Now that I’ve snugged up my clamps you can see the squeeze out.

You can see two levels of squeeze out. The line at the top is more like I want to have. The middle row is way too much for my taste. The picture just shows the difference.

After I am sure my board is clamped to my satisfaction – I just set it aside. Once the glue dries I knock down any blobs of glue with a hand sander then get the board ready for the planner.

You’ll notice in the previous pictures that my waste pieces are about 4” wide. That’s too wide for the planer. I used what I had, but now I need to cut those down to be able to fit into my planer. Once that’s done I head to the planer and run the board through until the surfaces are flat and smooth. I didn’t take any pictures of that – but will do so in the next section of the blog.

Now it’s back to the table saw to cut off the waste. I set the blade to cut just a tiny bit off the edge of the waste and a tiny bit off of the work piece.

After both waste pieces are cut off then I cross cut the uneven ends to square them up.

Finally, I check that both maple edges are the same width. This time they are not.I use my square and bring the blade to the edge of the walnut, then snug up the nut and flip the square over to the other side. You can see in the picture that it’s off just a bit under 1/32.

I take that edge back to the saw and nip off a bit and now it’s right on the money.

So now that I have the board to the length and width I’ve got to decide how I’m going to treat the corners – am I going with a complete square look, cut a rounded corner, an inside corner or an oval? These little templates are a great investment. I’ve had this set for about 15 years and I can tell you I’ve used one or another on almost every project I’ve done.

These templates make the following corners.

Each template has a lip that fits over the corner of your work piece.

For this project I am going to go oval. This means I bring out the compass and a square. First you have to find dead center of the board. Simple enough measure the width, divide by two, set your square to that number, make a mark on the board THEN flip the square to the other edge and make another mark – if you are truly in the center your two marks will overlap.

I place the pin part of the compass on the center line and stretch the pencil part to the edge of the board.

I swing the compass around so that it hits just below the edge of the board.

The reason I go just below the edge is that it’s easier to cut on the bandsaw with a little extra at the top. Once I decide that my compass mark is okay, I make the same mark on the other end. Then it’s off to the band saw. You’ll notice in the next photo that I cut just barley outside the line of my arc. Much less to sand off. If you go inside the line – it’s not a game breaker, just go back and swing a new curve and try again.

Then it’s off to the sander.

My sander is just the run of the mill bench top sander. It does a good job. But there are dangers if you don’t watch what you are doing.

You’ll see the uneven chunk taken out of this junk piece. That’s because I pushed the board too hard and unevenly against the disc. This can be an issue if you have a particular size you are looking for. More times than not you can redraw your line and re-sand. After I am satisfied with the sanding it’s off to the router to put on a round over.

This is what I ended up with – not to shabby.

That’s about it for this part of the project, but here’s a little side tidbit. While I was looking through my scrap box for a junk piece to show the sander picture above, I found a little cutoff from a prior project. I don’t throw much of any wood away. In no time at all I turned this little scrap into a small cutting board. It’s about 7” x 4” – not anything more than small – but it’s good enough for the drawer for the one apple or one whatever that that you want to cut but not bring out the big board. It will probably be a stocking stuffer for a friend – or I just might keep it. Who knows!

Okay that’s it for tonight. I know I tend on the side of verbose and I’ve probably left out some stuff and put too much of other stuff in – but I hope the above helps someone out a bit. Any questions, suggestions and comments are welcomed.

While there are infinite number of ways to make and styles to attempt there are basically only three varieties of cutting boards: face grain, edge grain and end grain. Face grain is the easiest and also the least durable. Having said that, some of the prettiest boards are face grain and if the board is properly cared for it can last for ages. As an example, my father made a board for my mother when they first got married. That was 73 years ago. My brother still uses that board – I can tell you it was not “properly” cared for and it looks a bit rough – but still on the job.

Fair warning – those of you who are well into learning may be a bit bored with what follows – but I was asked for simple—- soooooooo….. off we go.

I am going to make a couple of assumptions – one that you are going to start with good lumber. I sold my jointer long ago because the darn thing scared me – couldn’t get past it so I made a conscious decision that I would pay extra to get surfaced lumber – so I’m not the best to teach preparing lumber for working. But the very basics are you need lumber that is flat and straight. That said, I do not turn my nose up to a board that may have a bow or a twist. A long board with either of those “defects” can be handled without a jointer for a cutting board – often simply cutting the board into sections will do the trick – if it’s a bad warp or bow – I draw of line down the center and cut it on the band saw – also a good work around. However, I will only buy a board like this if it has some type of grain pattern that is really striking. I also, do a little bartering with the yard to see if I can take that defective board off their hands – it works – sometimes.

An Internet search will provide more than your fill of how to prep lumber either with hand or power tools. YouTube alone will keep you busy for quite some time. Of course, just because it’s on YouTube doesn’t mean it’s worth watching. I’d probably stick with the magazine web sites to get the best information or the larger bloggers, such as The Wood Whisperer.

Another thing about buying lumber for me is that I can’t carry eight or ten foot boards. So I have the boards cut down at the yard to generally 3’ or 4’ pieces. That alone saves me a lot of time. Not many cutting boards I make are going to call for lumber longer than 3’ so it’s not a problem. My preference is 3’ sections – but if I know I’ve got some face grain boards to make I can use that 4th foot on those boards.

First off – I apologize for the poor photography and formatting – I’ve got to relearn a few things.

I am doing some quick and easy face grain boards to have for a show next weekend. I’m going to do two similar to this:

I usually make face grain boards from scrap – and these boards will have mostly scrap – but the maple I wanted to be very clear/clean so I used a piece cut from a longer board.

First a little tip to take care of. Cutting your pieces to length is not just go to the chop saw and chop away – it could be – but not worth it. The first photos just shows that you put the cleanest edge of your board against the chop saw fence.

Notice in the next picture the fuzz from the cut. That’s because I didn’t use a backer board on the chop saw.

This fuzz, if not knocked down – can lead to the board not being flush against the table saw fence. The picture below shows the fuzz against the fence – notice that it does not sit flat against the fence. This has been a problem for me in the past – I’ve cut the board, taken it to the saw and because it’s generally a long piece, I didn’t notice the fuzz and how it effected the cut until I had already cut through most of the board and the fuzz finally hitting the fence– so this is just something to watch for. (The picture stinks.)

To avoid the fuzz – use a backer board such as this:You’ll see that now the pencil is pointing to a clean edge that will sit flat to the table saw fence.

The board I’ve cut for the 2 sidepieces of maple has a rough edge on both sides but one is straighter than the other – but not perfect. As you will recall – I do not have a jointer so I have to have a way to make one straight edge.

Because one edge is rough but straight – I will place it against the fence and cut the other rough and not so straight edge. I know it might be hard to believe – but it took me a little while to learn to save time when setting the fence to the blade to make that straight edge. I would just slap the board against the fence and move the fence toward the blade until it hit the edge of the blade and cut. It didn’t always happen that the board would be cut clear through – that’s because one end is usually skinnier than the other. The second picture shows the other end with a gap between the blade and the edge of the wood.

So, long and short on this point – put the skinniest end of the board against the blade and you will get a cut clean through the entire length of the board. This made a clean straight edge on one side, I then flip the board edge over edge and cut a small portion off the other side and I’ve got two straight edges.

My jig board is long to accommodate many different projects. The clamps should be moved to about 2” from either end of the work piece. The next photo is an attempt to show the ledge you need to create on the back of the board to allow the clamps to set flat. You have to cut the board on edge with your saw blade run up. It’s an easy cut but you need to be careful with your measurement.

I will admit to not being 100% sure I have the clamps the way they are intended to be used/set up – the instructions are sketchy. Regardless, you can see in the next picture that the board, once tightened in the clamps, leaves the board not sitting flat on the tabletop.

Now you can cut the edge like this – but you will not get a square edge and you’ll chatter the board all the way through the cut. The chatter is a disturbing sound. To fix this issue and avoid that chatter, I place a scrap piece of ply under the board.

One thing to be careful of – is you don’t want the spacer ply to be under the clamps themselves – that will give you more than the support than you need and you end up with an clean edge with a slant the other way.

This jig is easy to set up and easier still to use. After I get my first edge – I lay that edge up against my saw’s fence to make sure it is straight then just run it through the blade. Generally it’s right on the money.

Okay – that’s my spiel on lumber prep. It’s much more involved then that if you buy rough lumber but, again, I’m not the one to explain all of that.

As to the board I’m making I selected a piece of maple that was clear/clean that was wide enough to accommodate both 3” pieces and left enough to cut the 1/8” pieces. The wider walnut pieces are 1”.

You have probably noticed in my pictures that I do not have a blade guard on my saw. Generally I don’t run without the guard, but the fact of the matter is – I busted it moving lumber around – don’t ask – it wasn’t pretty. I’ve ordered a replacement. It’s always better to use a guard or in the very least a riving knife (which is also missing from the pictures – but that’s another story).

Without a blade guard with pawls you have to bet aware of the dangers involved. Such as pushing the board through the blade and once the cut is finished but not through/past the blade – if you pick up your push stick/move your hand releasing your hold on the board – it will become a missile and fire right back at you. The force of that board coming back can be tremendous. I’ve never had the issue but I’ve seen the bruises on others and it’s not pretty. The same can happen with your off cut. In the situation with no pawls I always use a featherboard.

“Using a featherboard also offers safety benefits. Because of the angled orientation of its fingers, when a featherboard is set up to apply a gentle pressure, it will allow stock to move easily in the direction of the cut while all but preventing movement in reverse. And while it should be noted that they are not a replacement for the riving knife and anti-kickback pawls that now come standard with most tablesaws, featherboards do provide significant kickback insurance” (emphasis added).

There are many articles on the net about featherboards, how to make them and how to use them but the above quote sums it up pretty well. I use a featherboard with magnetic hold-downs that work great. But like the woodworkers we are you can make your own and come up with all kinds of variety.

I addition to using the featherboard always finish the cut by pushing the board all the way past the blade.

To cut the 1/8” pieces I used a jig. You can make your own jig but mine is store bought. I dislike making jigs as a rule, but I get a lot of gift cards from friends who really have no idea what to buy a woodworker who has everything else she needs, but can always use another tool or gadget, and I use those to buy jigs that I simply don’t want to make.

It’s a crummy picture and it’s hard to see that the blue jig has a small ball bearing (which spins) that you use to place your board against (opposite the blade) to help give you repeatable, same width cuts. I use this jig get multiple thin strips. The ball bearing provides a positive stop and also allows the material to move easily through the cut. I still use a featherboard. This is a much easier and safer way to make thin strips. Trying to cut them next to the fence is not the best idea.

The thin strips come out pretty much perfect – the only issue I’ve ever had with thin strips is getting a lot of fuzz on the edges. It’s pretty simple little swipe with a piece of sandpaper – but there’s probably a way to avoid the fuzz but I’ve not tripped over it.

My OCD requires that I number every piece – in some instances that’s a good thing.

Tomorrow I’ll go through how I glue and clamp the board. I hope the above is of some help to you in your adventure. If it’s too simple and drawn out – please let me know.

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Sun, 08 Nov 2015 04:39:14 GMThttp://lumberjocks.com/Betsy/blog/69866BetsyBetsyCutting Board Primer #1: I was asked for this primer - hope it helpshttp://lumberjocks.com/Betsy/blog/69354
I was asked by several newbies if I would take some time to do a blog on building cutting boards that will cover the basics that may not get covered in the blogs/forums that detail how to do the real fancy boards that we all aspire to. So I’m going to try my best to hit the simple things that a novice trying to learn on their own may not think about or not realize until after they’ve made the mistake. It’s been a very long time since I’ve taken on a task like this – so please feel free to help me along.

First I’d like to point out that my way is not the only way. My way works for me and can probably work for others – I don’t do anything that unusual – but since I pretty much taught myself – I may not be using the most conventional methods. I welcome all replies, suggestions or another explanation of what I’ve done.

I know that the holidays are coming up and some are going to be making their first cutting boards so I’m going to try to get some of the blog moving along soon. However, as I said the holidays are coming and I have two large holiday shows that I’m doing this year so I’m in full building mode. I’ll do the best I can and I will, at the very least, get the simpler face grain and edge grain boards covered before Thanksgiving.

My intent is to show all the warts, pimples and opps that I’ve made over the years and try to help those new to this wonderful hobby/sport/pastime to avoid the same. I’ll try to be picture heavy to help make up for any lack of literary clarity.

Finally – just a bit of my philosophy – a very little bit. There is not one single cutting board made that I think has a mistake, or error, that cannot be “fixed” in some way. There are multiple ways to do so and I’ve used many of them and will show them as well. I detest throwing a board out – I fix it or repurpose the lumber if I absolutely don’t think I would like my fix.

As examples – here are a few “mistakes” – fixed and sold within the last 2 or 3 years or so.

The first one was supposed to be a regular chevron board – I messed up the angle and could not get the corners lined up – so I punted to this. It sold for more than the typical board – at a friend’s suggestion I put a bigger price on it because it looked more “artsy farts.”

The second one was supposed to be a “full sized” board – about 15×11 – but I had a crack in the middle of one slice. I cut the board in half at the offending slice and sold both halves as individual boards.

Not sure I should do this next thing – don’t want to be a thought of as a braggart – but I wanted to give you an idea of how many boards I’ve made within the last 3 months or so – this load is 284 of all sizes and types. A great many of these sold at my last two shows and from calls from former customers. (It’s hard to see but there are actually 2 rows deep of boards on top of the piano.) All but one or two of these boards are your standard flat, edge grain and end grain boards that are simple and fast. There are a few that are not as easy – but are doable. I have a pretty good system down that works well for me. I’ll try to share some of that as we go along.

I hope you will come along for the ride. If anyone has questions or suggestions as I go along, as I’ve said, I welcome them.

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Mon, 02 Nov 2015 03:30:34 GMThttp://lumberjocks.com/Betsy/blog/69354BetsyBetsyWoodworking as Therapy #20: Relearning Google Sketch Uphttp://lumberjocks.com/Betsy/blog/28949
I started this blog http://lumberjocks.com/Betsy/blog/5302 quite a long time ago to learn Sketch up and to take everyone else along for the ride while I was recovering from a health issue. Quite a ride it was. I actually kind of got the hang of it. But, alas, you know the saying, “you don’t use it you lose it” well that’s where I’m at right now. I’m going back reading through my own blog to teach myself SU again, I’ve also been going through videos tutorials, etc. to learn my way around the program.

Right now I’m trying to relearn the thing so I can make a “hose box” for my sister. I’ve just put a new sun room on the back of my house and I’ve told her that the hose needs gathered up every night and not laying around making the new digs look sloppy. So she shot back that I need to make a box! Well that’s all well and good, but I need a plan. I can build pretty much anything with a good plan. But designing my own plan – not so good.

I asked her why not just buy one of the fancy hose reels you can get, there are some really nice ones out there, but she’s against the idea. She thinks I can make a better box. We’ll see.

So I’m challenging myself by putting out this post that I’m going to design, draw and build my sister her hose box. This should keep my feet to the fire.

The basic look of the box is this: it’s going to have 4 legs (how about that——a three legged box would just not do), I want the box to be up off the ground about 2” maybe 3”, have a bottom drawer that’s about 5” high to store nozzles, gloves, etc., then the main box will be about 15 inches high. The box as a whole will be about 18 wide x. 20 high x 20 deep and it will have a lift off lid of 3/4 material that’s rabbited 3/8” so that it lays on top of the box with a 3/8” lip. The back of the box will have a 1” hole to feed the hose to the tap.

So that’s my challenge. Whether I can manage it without pulling out all my hair or turning gray will be another story.

Hang on, it might be a bumpy ride!

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Sun, 18 Mar 2012 21:46:03 GMThttp://lumberjocks.com/Betsy/blog/28949BetsyBetsyAdirondack Chair Class #14: Final arm assembly and putting the chair togetherhttp://lumberjocks.com/Betsy/blog/28895
So now comes the very fun part the chair is actually coming together.

First you have to decide if you are going to use pocket holes to put the arm together to the back rest. I chose to use pocket screws because it’s one less thing you have to make disappear with a plug on the front of the chair.

I place my Part F onto the bottom of the back rest and mark one center location on each of the 4 skinny slats and three marks on the center slat (1” from each end and 1 in the middle). You don’t have to be super precise on the measurement.

Next up is to mark distance where you will place the pocket rocket to drill the hole. I make a guide mark at about 3/8” from the edge, and then simply drill the holes. Be sure you are drilling on the bottom – that’s important.

To put your arm assembly together you’ll need a 19.5” spacer to keep the arms at the front at the correct position. I use a clamp to lightly clamp the arms to the spacer.

Next up is to simply glue your laps together, clamp and let dry.

Once dry you’ll want to sand your assembly before moving on. It’s much easier to get all those pencil marks off and to take care of any difference in height in your lap joints.

Once dry, you can do the final assembly of the chair. For this process you’ll need two scrap pieces the same height as the front leg. You’ll want to clamp these to the back of the chair leg to hold the arms up until you get the back rest in. These will support your arms and make sure they are level.

You’ll also need a scrap piece to align the front of your arms with the chair leg. The scrap is ¾” wide and I’ve marked a ½” line to indicate the overhand of the arms.

Place your arm assembly onto the chair and rest them on the scrap pieces at the back. I generally put one screw in one arm to get it set and them set the other arm, coming back to finish up all the other screws. Be sure to drill pilot holes before driving your screws – you don’t want to split your wood when you are almost done!

Next you’ll take your back assembly and place it inside the arms and down between the leg supports. This can be a little tricky if you have gotten your measurements off at any point. The back rest should slide into the assembly without too much trouble.

I like to secure my bottom screws into the backrest before I screw the arm (part F) into the back rest.

The process I use is very simple. Get a small a scrap of ¾” material and place it on the bottom of the back rest. That scrap should be exactly at the level of the leg support, that will get you smack dab in the middle of the board to run your screw.

Before driving your screws, be sure that your back rest is flush against the seat slat.

I drive one screw on each side and check my assembly before doing the final screw.

After that you will drive your pocket screws on the underside of part F into the back rest. Be sure not to over drive – you don’t want the screw tips to come through the front. I use 1.25” screws.

Now if you chose not to use pocket holes and will be screwing your arm rest to the back rest from the front – the easiest way to determine location is to simply place a board across your arms top and bottom. Draw a pencil line to essentially box in your location. Determine the center of each slat and drill countersink holes, and install your screws.

Your chair should sit level once everything is put together. If your chair rocks then you have either put one arm more forward or have one side of the back rest too low. Check your set up quickly before your glue dries. You can always fix a little rock after a chair is done, but you don’t want a big wobble that will only sit level in the grass.

All that’s left is to plug the screw holes, paint and enjoy.

Hop is way ahead of you!

I’ve enjoyed doing this class. I do not plan to do the foot rest that goes with the chair, it’s pretty easy to follow the directions and I don’t believe I can make the plans any better than they are now.

I hope you have enjoyed the class and if you ever have questions, please feel free to contact me through PM.

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Fri, 16 Mar 2012 01:43:05 GMThttp://lumberjocks.com/Betsy/blog/28895BetsyBetsyWoodworking as Therapy #19: Hand tools bulking them up.http://lumberjocks.com/Betsy/blog/28798
So I’m working a little on getting my chisels to the right size that will keep my hands from cramping. Taking some of the advise my fellow LJs provided I’ve gathered a few things to work with

I went to my neighborhood bike shop and they were kind enough to give me a trashed inner tube. As an aside, I had forgotten how nasty those things smell. Yuk. I also got some athletic tape and some of the under wrap to use with it. I also bought some new plumbing insulation to play with.

You should know that the easiest way to cut the plumbing insulation is with the band saw, it cuts clean and easy. One difference on the insulation that I used and what was left from sun room project is the new stuff has adhesive on the edges to bind it together when it’s wrapped around the pipe.

1/2” insulation is too small for the chisel handles and the 3/4” is too small but closer.

I could not hold the chisel and do the wrapping so I had to wrap the business end in paper towels and painters tape to cushion it for holding it in the bench vise.

The first thing I tried was the insulation with wrapping of athletic tape.

You can see that it does bulk up the handle, but you can see in the picture that it’s still not enough.

My goal is to get the handle up to the point where my fingers are about as far apart as the next picture.

So I’m not quite there. I next tried to add another layer of the pipe insulation.

With a layer of athletic tape, the two layers of insulation was too much.

Next up I took off the second layer of the insulation and wrapped the first layer with a layer of rubber tubing.As an aside the inside of tubing has a nasty white powder that you really need to clean off of your hands will get dried out from it.

With a layer of athletic tape I’ve gotten pretty close.

A second layer of rubber and tape and I feel pretty comfortable with the grip.

I’m going to play with this a little bit before moving onto my hand saw. Will definitely use the the athletic under wrap on the saw handle to protect the good wood handle.

Slowly but surely I may be able to at least use my chisels comfortably in my everyday woodworking. That’s a comfort all in itself. :-)

Thanks for all the help.

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Mon, 12 Mar 2012 00:56:22 GMThttp://lumberjocks.com/Betsy/blog/28798BetsyBetsyWoodworking as Therapy #18: Hand toolshttp://lumberjocks.com/Betsy/blog/28706
So I’ve been lamenting that my use of some hand tools is limited due to strength and cramping issues when I hold things. I sold almost all my planes because I no longer have the arm strength to use them, but I’ve hung onto my nice chisels and dove tail saws. The tools just sit there staring at me begging to be used. So I’ve been thinking of some work arounds.

For my chisel handles I’ve been experimenting with the pipe insulation that comes as a tube with a slit in it. The workmen used this to insulate my pipes for the Sunroom and left some behind. So anyway I put some around one of my chisel handles and it actually works pretty well. It is not a great fit, but I’m going to experiment more with it. I think if I use some electrical or athletic tape and tighten it up a bit, I might be able to use my chisels again! There is a slippage issue, but I think if I do the taping right I can make that work.

As for my dove tails saws, the insulation just is not going to work. But I am going to dig out my anti vibration glove and see if that might work. I’m not sure it will do the trick because its not very thick. I am leary of using tape on the nice rose wood handles, but to use the saw I really need to build up the grasping area so that my hand is not curled up as much as it would be with the current size of the handle. Of course it can’t be built up too far because the handle opening is not all that big.

I really think if I can get these two issues worked out, I just may be back into the hand tool using arena. I know that I will have to limit how much time at each session I use the tools, especially the saw, but I figure if it takes several weeks to cut dovetails for a box, so what. I’ll be doing what I’ve always wanted to do and that is to make hand cut dovetails in my projects. Since this is a hobby and not a business, time is not an issue.

I’ll need to think of some way to do the sharpening that won’t hurt my hands, but that is down the road. Right now my chisels are all wicked sharp, so with the limited use it will be a while before I need to worry about sharpening.

Does anyone have any other ideas I might use to build up the girth of my hand saws?

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Wed, 07 Mar 2012 04:46:00 GMThttp://lumberjocks.com/Betsy/blog/28706BetsyBetsyWoodworking as Therapy #17: Ruminating ideas for projectshttp://lumberjocks.com/Betsy/blog/28628
So I’m quickly coming to the close of my Adirondack chair blog class (just the final assembly to go), my sun room addition is now complete (just got the French doors put in today) and I’ve managed to put up some shelves Sis wanted in the laundry room (nothing major – haven’t decided if I’m going to put doors on them but they are framed so I can add doors if I want to), so now my mind is turning towards some new smaller projects that I can do.

I’ve purchased chairs for the sun room and am considering ideas on small tables to build. The room is not large – 15×10 – almost all glass except an 18” Austin stone knee wall. I know I want a small table between the two recliners and one on either side of the couch and arm chair.

The problem I’m trying to figure out is the proportions and styles. It took a long time to get the right furniture that won’t overtake the room (I’m not a shopper and it took me three weeks of going to different stores to get what I wanted – it was exhausting, I just don’t know why people think shopping is fun), so I don’t want the tables to be too big or too small.

Then I’m trying to decide do I want just a table, or a table with a drawer and shelf, arts and crafts style, mission style—Betsy’ style. The only thing I’m certain of is that I’ll be using oak as I have a ton of it in the shop that is perfect for tables. Then I think again that it would be nice to have a table with drop leaves that can be put up to allow a card game.

So now that I’m thinking about tables, I start to think, perhaps I can make a new vanity for my bathroom. That’s a larger project, but still I’m thinking if I break it down into really small portions I can probably handle it physically.

Then I go into my bathroom area and I decide that the vanity there just is outdated. The vanity that is there now is one that is made for someone to sit at to put on makeup, etc. I have a lot of friends and they all have vanities like this in their homes (yep all cookie cutter homes) but I don’t know a single one that sits there. My particular area simply doesn’t have enough room to have a chair and still get past it on the way into the little bathroom area (which also could use a new cabinet for the sink). If I had a chair there and didn’t move it every night before bedtime, I’d trip on it during the night – so that vanity area is a lot of wasted storage space. I’m thinking I could add a drawer stack and maybe another cabinet. That would take a lot of stuff that has really no place to be. I’m thinking this area could simply be essentially three cabinets and I could probably handle that if I break it down into small parts and have my Sis help me with the assembly. So then I think to myself, as you all know, one home remodeling project leads to more. So do I really want to try to do this? I know if I update my bathroom area my Sis will want her bathroom area updated and if I update hers, then the hallway cabinets will need to be updated to match since her bathroom is essentially the guest bathroom and is off the main hallway.

To do all of that I’d really have to be organized because it would probably take a very long time for me to do it since my physical abilities come and go. I’m thinking just my bath, Sis’s bath, the hallway cabinets has 8 cabinet doors and six drawers, it is better if you can do all the set up at one time and not doing one door now and another door two weeks later.

Long and short my mind is whirling around what I can/should do for my next projects. I’m tired of doing boxes and cutting boards but I don’t want to get myself in the middle of a project and can’t finish it.

I can buy new bath cabinets but what fun is that?

So here I’m sitting, mind whirling and not sure what way to go. Reading, thinking, looking at plans, making drawings, and wondering what if…....

Not sure if all this thinking is good therapy or bad therapy, the what if’s can nail you sometimes.

Well – I feel better that I’ve got that off my chest – do you all ever find yourselves in this spot?

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Sun, 04 Mar 2012 03:58:33 GMThttp://lumberjocks.com/Betsy/blog/28628BetsyBetsyAdirondack Chair Class #13: Cutting the laps and shapes.http://lumberjocks.com/Betsy/blog/28496
This part is a little out of order, but I found this next little blurb in another class brochure I made and thought it would be good to add in here.

A half lap joint is a very basic joint, but it can be a very strong joint to connect two pieces of stock if done properly and in the right situations. The joint makes an intersection of sorts of the two pieces of wood. This intersection can be at the end of a board, in the middle or anywhere in between. I’ve seen half lap joints that are angled in different pieces, but generally speaking the joint is made by putting two boards together at a right angle.

Generally the two boards you want to join are of the same thickness (not necessarily the same width as is the case with this chair). Each board must have one half of its thickness removed – this makes it so the joint does not add any thickness to the project’s completed joint. You want the joint to look pretty close to seamless.

I’m sure there are exceptions to this rule, but for the most part, you want the joint to be seamless. I’ve not done a half lap on anything less than a 3/4 board and would think that anything thinner may be hard to work with and still keep the strength of the board in tact after having removed half of it to make this joint. I suppose though that if you make the joint and secure it quickly then the chance of breaking would be negated since you are adding the second board that’s been cut to the first. But, again, I’ve not done a board less than 3/4”.

Okay now on to the new stuff.

Just a little review of what we are doing here. We are at the step of making the lap joint which will make up the arm assembly. So far we’ve discussed using the table saw to cut the joint by simply passing your wood over the single blade over it multiple times until you reach your goal. This method is okay with a flat topped blade, but is generally not my method of choice.

The next choice would be to use my tenon jig shown in the previous installment of this blog.

Now you’ll notice that my blade does not go high enough on the arm (part K) to cut it all the way to the mark. However, The jig is perfect for the back support piece (part F).

Cautionary Note: When using the tenon jig, do not make the full cut in one pass. I think it is safer to make two or three passes raising your blade a little each time until you reach the cut you made while the board was flat on the table.

Next up is the router table. Here again, you cannot cut the arm’s shape before you rout because you will be using your miter gauge to slide the board across the cutter. If you cut the shapes out first then you have nothing to ride against your miter gauge.

Set up is pretty easy and is pretty much the same as on the table saw. You want to use a straight bit in the router and have the smallest opening you can to capture the bit. I like to start my cut right at the line and move out toward the end of the board. This is just a preference. Either way, you should have a sub-fence set up to act as a stop so that you do not go too far while routing.

Depending on the quality of your router and the bit you are using you can probably make this cut in one pass. But if you have an under-powered router you may want to make two passes.

If you are cutting in one pass be sure to test your height on two scrap pieces to be sure you’ve hit that 3/8” mark.

If you choose to cut in two or more passes, raising your bit each time, you should pass each part (INCLUDING your scrap test pieces) over the bit before raising it. That way each board is cut exactly the same. Always make the second or third pass first on your scrap pieces to be sure you have not raised the bit too far.

Hop has come back to remind you that as always, when using a router, or any other loud equipment in your shop, always wear ear protection and have a good pair of goggles.

On my router table having dust collection set up does not help a lot during this particular cut due to its distance from the actual cut, but I still connect it because it does help a little.

Because the dust collector does not get all the chips you need to constantly check that you are clearing the chips away from your miter gauge so that you are not skewing your piece with vagrant chips getting between the work piece and the miter gauge.

As you did with the table saw, be sure to use a backer board on the miter gauge at the router table, this will help avoid chip out on the exiting side of the board. Also, because the bit will pull your piece into itself you need to maintain a tight grip on the board. Often adding a piece of 100 grit sandpaper to the fence will help hold it in position.

One caveat here – you guys with the Shop Smith set ups have a great miter jig with the hold down built into the handle. When I had my Shop Smith I loved that one feature, it really secures your work piece.

Now onto another way to use the router to make this cut. You can make a jig similar to this (I didn’t actually take all the steps to make the jig—- just showing you what I would consider doing.)

First off you need to get your boards secure to one another. I, once again, use my table saw’s fence to butt my pieces up against so that I know they are square to one another. I then place a sacrificial board at the opposite end. This board must be clamped down. It will act as a platform to keep your router from tipping over when you get near the end. This board should be square to the ends.

Next you need a “fence” on the left side of your router. This is a little trickier to set up. The easiest way to do this is to set your router onto the work piece with the edge of the bit just on the cut out line. Next clamp the “fence” down on one edge then using a square to be sure the fence is aligned properly clamp the other side down. I used to have a dedicated jig for this, but it’s long gone. But this is the general idea.

Hop is here to tell me to not to do this method. I am out of the large router business until I can get more strength in my hands. That’s the major reason I’m not going into any depth on this jig. If I make it, I’ll want to use it and that’s not good. So I hope you got the idea from what little I showed you.

One method we did not mention in previous segments is cutting the lap joint using the band saw. That’s an excellent choice. If your band saw is set properly and you have a good fence system you should be able to cut the waste out in one shot (if your band saw has a riser block). However, you still need to make two cuts, one at the table saw to make the initial stop point and then on the band saw. Also, depending on how smooth you cut, you may have to do a little sanding to clean up the joint. An additional thing to think about – is you want to first cut the table saw cut. If you do not have a riser block on your band saw you will have to cut out the shape of the arm first then make the lap cut. Having cut out the shape first does not matter on the band saw as you easily cut from the left or right side of the blade.

Again, I’m not a big fan of the band saw for exact cuts, but it can be done. I’m just not very good at it. Okay now after all that you might be wondering which method I’m going to choose to use to make my lap joints. I’ve chosen the tenon jig. Even though my blade will not go to the height of the joint, it goes high enough that the little sliver left that it cannot cut, I can easily cut with a small hand saw. I think this gives me a clean, fast cut. I only have to set the blade height once to cut the flat-on-the-table cut and then only have to adjust the distance for the tenon jig once to cut the waste away.

Here’s what I do in step by step pictures.

I have some cards in my slot to show the height.

Did you see my mistake? I didn’t make the flat cut on the table saw on my scrap pieces. That’s okay. I’ll use my band saw to cut off the waste. I only need to have the height to check my set up.

My first set up didn’t go so well.

I reset and my second try was much better.

Part F was easy on the tenon jig because my blade goes plenty high enough.

On Part F you have to flip it end for end because you have a lap joint on both ends.

I’ve clearly marked what part of the arm goes and what stays.

On the arm support you must absolutely do it two passes. You can see that I’ve lowered my blade.

You can see that I’m left with a little sliver to take care of.

The piece can be cut out using a hand saw.

I’ve secured my piece in my work bench’s vise and will use my left hand to keep the saw up against my wall.

This still required a little bit of chisel work.

Cleaned up – my pieces fit together perfectly.

Next step is simply to cut your shape out on the band saw.

The very last step is to cut the bevel on Part F.

Set your blade at a 25 degree angle and move your saw’s fence to the proper setting. The easiest way to make this setting is to simply put work piece up against the fence and slide it to the blade.

You must have the lap side DOWN to make this cut.

You can see it’s not much of a bevel but it’s necessary to get the arm assembly to set correctly against the back assembly.

Here’s my confession on this bevel. I’ve made quite a number of these chairs from this set of plans and I’ve never made the bevel correctly.

I always though the bevel had to be across the whole piece, including the lap portion. Well duh! Making the bevel across the whole piece gives you this ugly gap.

(Yes – this particular chair needs to be repainted!) I would generally fill this with a little wood putty or caulk when I painted the chair. Finally, I realized that I was wrong and now I make the bevel on only the non-lapped section of piece.

Be sure to sand your arms smooth on all sides. I generally tape my arms together and sand as one unit so they are perfectly symmetrical.

Next installment will be actually putting the two arms and the support together and final assembly of the chair itself.

As always, thanks for looking.

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Sun, 26 Feb 2012 23:14:30 GMThttp://lumberjocks.com/Betsy/blog/28496BetsyBetsyAdirondack Chair Class #12: A side lesson - My Tenon Jighttp://lumberjocks.com/Betsy/blog/28480
Before we actually get into cutting the lap joint itself, let’s talk a little about my tenon jig. This jig is a pretty good addition to any shop. It’s quite easy to make from just a few scraps laying around. For this project you’ll need a tall face, and a board the exact width of your table saw’s fence.

Here are some shots of my jig.

You’ll need a piece of track, a knob and a holding device to act as your securing device.

You can buy the track at Rockler or Woodcraft. Be sure your track will fit into the scrap material you intend to use. My sides are made from 3/4” MDF.

I cut the track by just passing my piece over a single blade enough times to make the track fit snuggly. Since it is MDF I was not worried about ridges as you can clean those up very quickly with a few swipes of some sand paper.

You can see that the “backer” board will get cut through as you make cuts so it’s a board that will need replaced from time to time.

This shot just shows the jig as it fits over the fence. It’s kind of hard to see since the saw’s fence is black.

You want your jig to fit tightly to the fence, but not so tight that you have to push harder than you would push on any other board going through your blade. Not sure that my idea is coming through on this point. But just be sure you have a tiny bit of wiggle room on the jig so that it slides neatly across the fence and is not a bear to move, but not so much wiggle room that as you push the jig it skews a little outward. Get that?

One thing that can help the jig move more smoothly is to use a little wax on the portions that actually touch the saw’s fence. Like anything else – a little wax will do ya. Who said I didn’t have a sense of humor. Ha! :-)

You’ll notice on my jig I do not have a handle or push stick built in. That’s on purpose. My old jig (that fit my old saw) had a handle and I found I did not get a good feel for how the board was moving through the blade. With this jig, I use my hand with my wrist on the saw’s fence and my fingers (and thumb) just on the jig to push it. This gives me a better feel of things and it works better for me. But if you feel better with a handle by all means make one. But be careful where you place the handle. You don’t want it up so high on the jig that when you push you actually bring the back of the jig up off the fence. So experiment as to where the best spot is for the handle.

The set up for this jig is pretty simple. All you really need to set is the height of the blade and the distance from the blade to cut out the waste material.

Now there is one thing I’ve not told you which you’ve probably already thought of. Using the tenon jig means you actually have to make two cuts. One with the board lying flat on the table to get the shoulder cut. The second cut will be upright in the jig.

Now here’s your safety notice. When pushing the board through the blade – keep your pushing hand on the jig. Keep your thumb off the wall of the jig.

What I would do differently if I were to make this jig again would be to add a second track so that I can add an additional hold down.

Okay the next installment will be putting the jig through its paces.

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Sun, 26 Feb 2012 00:53:54 GMThttp://lumberjocks.com/Betsy/blog/28480BetsyBetsyWoodworking as Therapy #16: This is the best of all therapy!http://lumberjocks.com/Betsy/blog/28474
I started making this set when my boss with about 6 months pregnant. Lou Lou turns 2 next week and I just got the chairs done. Needless to say this was a slow going project. But despite some of the parts not being the best (I made them when I probably should not have been making them) the set turned out pretty well. The look on Lou Lou’s face was worth the wait.

Both part K and F have a 3/8 lap joint. Both together make the assembly.

Part K’s lap joint is on the bottom and part F is on the top. That’s an important point to remember.

Before I cut my arm to shape I cut the lap joint. Here’s why.

As I am sitting in the chair the right arm can be cut against the miter slide.

But the left arm, if already cut out must be flipped over to cut the lap joint.

To safely cut the left arm if it’s already cut to shape you would have to some way to support the board.

You can see that you’d have to put a scrap piece between the edge of the arm piece and the miter sled. It would have to be an exactly sized piece so as to keep your work piece from shifting. (You cannot use the cutoff piece from when you cut out the arm shape because it’s missing the material from the saw kerf). It’s also not a good idea because you will have to manage two pieces of wood going through the blade at one time. Not a good idea. I would not suggest doing it.

No matter how you cut the joint you must have some backing support.

I always cut my lap joint before cutting the arm to shape.

I like to cut my part F – the support to width and length before getting to the lap joint.

Cautionary Note: In cutting part F you must remember back to the backrest assembly. We discussed that the backrest assembly has to be the same width as the inside of your chair assembly. Then the length of Part F must equal the width of the back assembly and the width of both laps of part K. So if your back rest is a little more or a little less than the correct 19.5” you must make the correction on the length of your part F.

Regardless of the length part F must be 3.25” wide.

There are several ways to cut a lap joint.

1) Cut by hand2) Cut on table saw with a regular blade3) Cut on table saw with a dado blade4) Using a table saw jig (pretty slick jig!)5) Cut on a router table6) Cut with a router using a sled/jig.

Method one is out for me. I’ve done it in the past with some pretty good success, but hand cutting is not in my tool arsenal any longer. So it’s a machine joint for me.

Method 3 – the dado blade is an excellent choice. But I don’t have a dado set up so I’ll skip this method also. It’s a great way to cut the joint – so if you have a dado set go for it.

Let’s first concentrate on cutting the joint on the table saw with a regular blade. You guys who already know the drawback to this method – hang with me, I’ll explain that in a little while.

First off no matter the method you chose to cut your lap joints you need to decide the width of both lap joints. The lap on the arm (part K) is the same width as the support piece (part F).

The width of the lap joint on part F is the same as the width of the arm (part K) AFTER it has been cut out to shape.

You can see that you have two set ups for width, but only one set up for depth to make. It makes sense, in my opinion, then to first set the height of your blade. You’ll need to gather up a few scraps to test your cuts. Make sure the scraps are the same thickness as your work piece materials.

Either set the height with a ruler or a set of set-up blocks. The set up blocks are more accurate and are an inexpensive set of gadgets to have around.

Remember that the top of you saw tooth should just barely hit that 3/8” mark.

I shifted my set up block to other side of the blade to check myself.

Learning Point – if you are using a typical saw blade, your inside and outside teeth are different heights. Keep that in mind when you are setting your height.

Use your fingertip to get the feel of it. You’ll be amazed how your finger can really help you hit the mark. You want to have the blade just at the exact height and you can tell that better with your finger than with your eyes.

Once you feel you’ve got that 3/8” mark set, use two scrap boards to make a test cut. Take a couple of passes on the ends of both boards. Then lay them against each other.

I did pretty good on my first try. Honest – it really was my first try!

Cautionary note – if your set up is not right the first time, it’s either too high or too low – you have to adjust your blade height one-half of the amount you are off. Remember that you are cutting two pieces so half of whatever amount you are off has to come off each piece.

Once you’ve reset your blade height, make another set of test cuts. (I suggest cutting off the first test cuts at the chop saw. This will avoid getting the ends of the boards mixed up—- hum—- is that end the first cut or the second cut—- you get the idea. I’ve done it a lot, so I finally just made myself get in the habit of cutting off the first test cuts.)

Now let me show you the drawback to using this method to cut your lap joints

You see those ridges – those ridges have to go. You’ll either have to use a hand plane to clean up the lap joint or sand it down to be smooth. There’s a small amount of ridge you can live with – but this is too much.

With that said – if I were using a flat topped blade I’d get a better surface. So that’s a choice if you don’t have that slick jig I mentioned above or have a router table or a hand held router. Just remember that you have to account for that ridge when you are doing your set up. It’s hard to get it right – but you can do it. Now on to how to actually set up the cut on the table saw with just one blade.

First this is a valuable tool to have in your arsenal. It’s a saddle square. You can use it to carry a line from one face of a board to an edge – it works great.

The easiest way to use this square (in my humble opinion) is to place your pencil point on the original line and ease the square over to just touching the pencil tip, then draw your line down the other edge.

Now you can use that second line drawn with the saddle square to set up the exact location of your table saw blade.

THIS POINT IS IMPORTANT

Do not use both your fence and your miter gauge at the same time to make a cut. You’ll very likely end up with a kick back or other sour note.

Use a scrap piece to make a “sub fence” that you will use to butt your work piece against and yet allow you to pass the board through the blade AFTER the board leaves the edge of your scape piece.

Now you can start making your cuts.

The first pass your piece is butted right up against the scrap “sub fence”.

After you pass the blade, pull the work piece to the left of the blade and bring the sled and piece back past the blade.

Next slide your work piece back against the sub fence then move it slightly less than the width of your blade to the left.

Make your next cut and continue along the length of your joint.

Alternatively you can make your cut this way.

This method you hold the piece firmly against the sled, pass it through the blade and WITHOUT moving the board, bring the board and sled back through the blade. I do this all the time with no problems, but if you are just starting out and getting used to the table saw the first way is probably the safest way to go. You must absolutely not allow the board to shift as you bring it back through the blade. If you cannot do that – don’t make the cut this way.

Finally after all those passes this is what you end up with.

You have the ridges to deal with. I honestly don’t like this method except for down and dirty joints to be made in a hurry.

Now onto that 4th method, the slick jig.

This is the jig.

How to set it up and use it accurately is the next installment of my little blog.

You’ll notice I have already drilled pilot holes for where the arms will be screwed to the front leg (part I) and arm support (part J).

At this point you need to remember that you have both a right and a left arm. You are using one pattern for both arms, therefore you have to flip the pattern over to make the second arm.

Here’s a bad idea and a bad habit.

Don’t get in the habit of using your saw’s fence as a tool tray. It’s a bad idea because when have the saw going and you reach for your push stick – you could accidently flip one of those little things into your blade and it will come right back at you. Not a good idea. There’s the safety lesson for today. 

Use your saw’s fence and blade to set your distance to cut the width of your arm.

If you are still at the stage of cutting your pattern use your pattern’s edge to determine where to set your fence.

Let’s pretend I do not have my pattern cut out yet. What I would do (providing you used one factory edge as a beginning point) would be to put my pattern up to the blade and use a straight scrap to line up your mark.

Cautionary Note: Be sure to line up with the inside tooth of the blade.

Now that you’ve set your saw for width, you can cut your boards to length at the chop saw. Be sure to use a support at one end of your board.

Also before cutting to length use your pattern to determine the best part of the board to use, you want to avoid having a knot at either end of your arm piece.

Avoid this.

You can use your pattern to determine the best place to cut – you can see that I’m avoiding knots both at the top and bottom of my pattern.

Cautionary Note – Beware of this – I have a hidden knot under my pattern.

If the knot is a tight knot – no problem, but if this knot is not tight so I would not use this section of the board for my arm.

Here’s a knot I can live with.

Be sure to use a backer board at the chop saw and cut the two pieces you will need for your arms to exactly 28” long.

Now with both pieces side by side place your pattern on top and trace the first arm.

REMEBMER you have a right and left arm. Once you trace the first pattern – flip it over to trace the second.

Now you have your pattern laid out so as to avoid knots you can go ahead and cut to the boards to width.

Cautionary Note – the first board is easy – the second board you have to flip over (right to left – not top to bottom), you want to make sure you cut off the right edge.

Now that you have your arms cut to length and width you can drill your pilot holes

Be sure you have the sides together. The cutout curve goes to the outside of the chair.

Now you can drill the screw holes using a Forstner bit.

Next up cut the middle support – Part F, to length and width. (3-1/4×25”)

STOP!

Now we need to talk about lap joints. The arm has a 3/8” lap joint cut into the bottom and part F – the middle support has a 3/8” lap joint on the top. The two lap joints when together will equal ¾”.

This is where I’ll end this lesson. I’ll start making the lap joints this weekend.

As always – if you have any questions or comments please let me know.

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Sat, 11 Feb 2012 19:05:40 GMThttp://lumberjocks.com/Betsy/blog/28158BetsyBetsyAdirondack Chair Class #9: Back rest assemblyhttp://lumberjocks.com/Betsy/blog/27724
Now we move onto the back rest assembly which is made up of parts A, B, C, D and E.

First off I want to say that this part of the blog was hard to write to make it clear. So if you have any problems with my explanations or have questions please feel free to ask. And for those of you who have PM’d me and said you plan to do this project in the spring, please feel free to PM me them if you have questions.

Also I apologize for the poor photography. I think I may have to have Degoose come over from the other side to help me take better pictures! Actually, if I’d open my wallet and get a better camera ….

We first start by cutting the slats. Part A is best made by using a 1×8 which is actually 7 1/8” wide.

Part A needs to be 7” wide so you barely need to cut just an edge off to hit your 7” mark. If you are using a new board (8’ long) you’ll need to cut it down to size. The final length to cut to is 33”, but cut it about ¼” longer so you can square up the other end.

You can see that my board has a few knots at both ends. So I have to decide which end to use if I choose to use this board. I can do one of several things.

1) I can use the end where the knot is solid and trim the edge without the knot to 7”2) I can cut out the knot which makes me lose about 6” of my board that could be useful3) Because the knot is not at the very end, I can use this end for the bottom of part A.

I would not use the end of the board where the knot is loose and likely to come out at some point in the life of the chair.

Be sure to use some support to hold the long end of the board while you make your initial cut at the chop saw.

Once cut to length, rip that 1/8” extra inch off of the board to make it the 7” needed.

The next step is to make the arc needed on the top of the board. Measure down from the top of the board 3.5” and in from the side 3.5” to make an intersecting point.

Set your compass on the intersecting point and swing the compass from side to side making your arc. You’ll see that you will cut off just a bit of the top making the arc. This allows you to cut the curve avoiding a flat spot on the top.

Cut the arc at the band saw, then sand down to the line. Once the curve is sanded go ahead and break the edges so the piece has a soft edge all around. That will complete Part A.

Parts B & C are the same width (2-7/8) but not the same height.

A 1×4 is perfect for these two parts, but you can also get two parts out of a 1×8.

Part B is 29” tall and Part C is 26.5” tall.

You’ll need two B’s and 2 C’s for each chair.

Cut the boards to the length needed at the chop saw and then cut to width at the table saw.

Learning Point – Normally you would stack cut both B’s and both C’s together, however, since you need 1 B and 1 C on each side of Part A it’s better to cut a B & C stacked together. That way when you cut the arc and sand to the line both parts will have the same exact arc.

Use carpet tape to secure Part C on top of Part B (the longer slat). Mark the arc on the top of Part C. Use the same method to get your arc measurement – either use the full size pattern or measure the compass size using a measure stick.

Cautionary note on carpet tape – the backing paper is quite slick. So when you take it off the tape, don’t let it fall on the floor. It’s so slick that it’s easy to slip on causing a fall.

2nd cautionary note on carpet tape – If your board has any bow at all the carpet tape will NOT hold the board flat – so make sure you use flat boards.

Since you are stacking a short board on top of a long board, be sure to draw your arc on the short board. To mark the arc measure down 2 and 15/16” from the top and set your compass.

Take to the band saw and cut as before. Once cut keep the stack together and sand to the line. Mark the two pieces to keep them together on one side or the other.

You’ll notice that you take a little off the top of these parts like you did on Part A – this keeps you from have flat spots on your slats.

Now is a good time to break the edges of each slat so that they are smooth instead of a hard square edge from the saw.

Next you need to make Part D which is the bottom support piece. Part D is 3.5” wide by 19.5” long.

Let me digress a little as we approach Part D. If you have read my other post about making this chair – you’ll notice several things I’ve done differently with this chair. Yep – even old dogs can learn new tricks. One of the things I’m doing differently on this chair is that I’m not using pocket hole screws to attach Part D to the back slats (parts A, B and C). I think if I’m honest with myself, and you, I would say that I used the Kreg system to do this particular joint just because I really like using it. But when you step back and look at it, the pocket holes on this particular part is probably just overkill. It’s a tiny bit more difficult to do just regular screws but not that much that it warrants using the more expensive pocket screws.

Okay – back the task at hand.

You’ll notice that the 19.5” of Part D is the exact width of the inside dimension between the leg supports of your seat assembly.

It’s important that this part is the right size as it impacts how the whole assembly fits on the chair and the width of the arm assembly a little ways down the road. With that said——

Cautionary Note – if you measure the inside dimension and it comes up a little short or a little long – you’ll need to account for that measurement in making part D, and in the width of the slats (or the space between the slats) and in making Part F of the arm support. The final width of the back rest must be the same as the inside dimension of the legs.

Learning Point – Use the chair itself to mark the dimension of Part D. Be certain not to make Part D too tight – you do need a tiny bit of wiggle room to get the parts together at final assembly.

To use the chair as the measure simply put your roughed sized board with one edge just on the inside of one leg and then lay the other end over the leg and make a mark.

Learning Point – be certain that the ends of Part D do not have knots as it will be difficult to drive screws into.

Next up is Part E – the top support. This is one part that can also be made from a piece of scrap. Additionally, it does not have to be exactly 1.5” wide, so if you have a piece 1.25” wide you can use it with no problem. Part E does need to be at least 18.5” long. No matter the width you have, use a small square to find the center point of the board.

On a project like this I don’t measure to the 1,000th’s of an inch. That’s not to say that I’m not accurate – but you don’t need to get out the fancy calibers. For instance if you know your board is 7” wide then half of that is 3.5. So set your square to 3.5 – make a mark then flip the square to the other side and it should line up with the line you made. If it does not, then simply move the body of the square up or back according to whether you over or under shot the 3.5 mark. I’ve taken a picture here to show what I mean – it’s exaggerated to make the point.

Just keep adjusting until you are pretty sure you’ve hit center.

Once you have determined the center of your board use the square the run the line the length of it. Sometimes it’s hard to hold the piece still and run the square and hole the pencil at once. My solution is to use the edge of my table saw as one anchor point and my six-packs abs for the other. That holds the board good and stead!

Now you need to clear some bench space as it’s time to assemble the back rest. You’ll need your ¼” spacers, two longish clamps and a scrap board that is 3.5” wide and at least as long as Part D.

First job is to find out how close you got to meeting that 19.5” mark. Lay out all the slats and put the ¼” spacers between each one. (Use one spacer at the top and one near the bottom. Place your Part D on the bottom edge of the slats.

Basically this is the set up

If your slats (with the spacers) is a little short of the 19.5” mark, use a few playing cards evenly distributed between the slats to make up the little shortness. If you are over the mark of 19.5” of Part D – you will need to take a little off of the outside slats.
Cautionary Note and a Learn Point – if say you are ¼” too long. You want to cut 1/8” off two slats. That way your two slats are the same. If you take ¼” off just one slat – you’ll have a slat that will look off.

Now here is a lesson of how when you are trying to write a blog and tell someone else how you do something – you come up with another good idea. It just occurred to me that if you would cut your slats to width and before cutting your arcs check to see that they match the length of Part D, if you are too wide – you can take the little bit off before cutting your arc and that will ensure all your arcs are the same. Sitting here thinking about it, I don’t think it would make that much difference in the appearance of your arcs if you cut them before laying them out – but this is something to think about.

Digression over – let’s move on.

At this point you need to decide if you are going to put the entire back rest together and then paint or if you want to leave yourself some room to paint. Here’s a picture to give you an idea of what I’m saying.

I secure the two outside slats (Part C) and the middle slat (Part A) and leave the two inside slats (Part B) off to the side. To do the assembly you have to have all the slats in place you simply do not screw down the two Part B’s.

I prefer to put on Part E before tackling Part D. I just think it’s easier to manage the whole assembly when you have to turn over the assembly to attach Part D.

First up – we have to do a little measuring. On the BACK both outside slats (Part C) measure up from the bottom 23.5”. Then at that point, measure in ½”. This will give you the “box” where Part E will be attached.

Now flip your slats over (it may help you to remember how things go back together after your trip to the drill press if you make a carpenter’s triangle across all 5 slats – on the back).

On the FRONT of the slats measure up 3/8” from the bottom and make a mark. Then find the center point across the width of all four Parts B & C and make a mark at the bottom AND at about the 23.5” mark as well. You’ll use the mark at the top to determine where to place the screws in Part E. The mark at the bottom is where you will drill the pilot holes to attach Part D when we get there.

Next make a mark 1” in on either side of Part A and then find the center and make a mark at the bottom AND at the top. Because of the width of Part A – you need to use three screws to secure it to both Parts D and E.

Now using either a hand drill or your drill press drill the screw holes on the bottoms of each slat (ON THE FRONT). If you use a drill press for the part you can clamp a scrap board to the drill press table to make a fence so you will always have the right distance from the end. If I were going to be doing a multitude of these I would make a fence, but since there are only five parts – I pretty much eyeball it.

Now you need to get the locations marked for the screw holes on Part E. At this point I do use two clamps to hold my slats together so I can get an accurate mark. Lay Part E onto the slats so that the ends match up with the “box” you made earlier. Now – with the center marks you made earlier – make a mark on the side of Part E and carry it over to the top – which will mark the center points to make the screw holes.

Then it’s another trip to the drill press to drill the holes. Be sure that you don’t drill the screw holes too deep – you want them just deep enough to take the screw head and to leave enough room to hold a plug. About ½ the body of the forstener bit is plenty deep.

Once all the drilling is done go ahead and sand off the pencil lines and break the edges of the piece (easier to do now than when it’s attached.) Only break the edges of the TOP of the piece not the bottom that actually attaches to the slats.

Now onto the attaching of Part E. You’ll need to add some glue at this point to the back of Part E and a little onto each slat.
Cautionary point here – If you intend to only attach the outside and middle slats to allow you room to paint, be sure NOT to put glue on those areas of Part E that will be left without a slat. Also, if you plan to attach all the slats at once and paint later you want to be careful with the glue and it’s hard to get squeeze out from between the slats.

You should now have your slats with the fronts down and the back up, with your ¼” spacers and two clamps lightly clamping the slats together. Place one end of Part E into your box and drill your pilot hole with the 3/32nd bit.

CAUTION CAUTION CAUTION – be very careful not to be all gung ho and drill all the way through the front of the slats. You just want to break through Part E and into the slat just a little ways.

What I do, is drill my first pilot hole, drive the first screw and use it as a pivot to place my other end.

So I do one end then the other and then the inside slats. I use the 1-1/4” screws here.

So now onto Part D. Depending on the clamps you used you may have to take them off at this point to flip the assembly over. I used my Bessey clamps so I have to take them off or they are too heavy. If you take them off, just be sure to put your spacers back in before you replace the bottom clamp (at this point – you only need the clamp at the bottom.

I use my table saw fence to my advantage here as well. Use two small clamps and attach the scrap 3.5” piece of material to the fence. Then lay the back rest with the top on the scrap and the bottom towards you.

Put some glue on the Part D and slide it under the slats, drill the pilot holes and drive the screws the same way as you did for Part E.

Congratulations you’ve finished the back assembly!

All that’s left is putting in your plugs (again going with the grain).

Once your plugs have dried sand them down flush with the slats.

Next up the arm assembly.

As always if you have any questions or comments please let me know.

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Sun, 22 Jan 2012 04:51:54 GMThttp://lumberjocks.com/Betsy/blog/27724BetsyBetsyAdirondack Chair Class #8: Arm Supports - short lessonhttp://lumberjocks.com/Betsy/blog/27604
The arm rest supports (J) are the next thing to make and install. This is a great time to use some scrap wood for a small part. You’ll need two for each chair.

Cut a piece just a tiny bit wider than 3.25” to allow for a nicer curve. Cut one piece long enough to make both pieces.

You’ll use a compass to mark the curve. The nice thing about plans like the one used for the chair is some of the paper patterns are full size. You can use the pattern to set a school style compass to the 3.25” or you can set the compass using a ruler.

Place your compass point at one corner of the board you’ve cut.

Then simply swing it to make your arc.

Next cut the board into two pieces using a chop saw.

Use a small piece of carpet tape to make a stack. Be sure to put the carpet tape on the area that will make the two parts.

In small pieces like this I like to use two small nails to hold the stack together. I have this handy little “nail spinner” to essentially drill the nail into the wood.

You can load the nail into the spinner.

Finish driving the nails into the stack to make sure the nail goes through both pieces.

Cautionary note – Be very careful not to drive the nails so far that they break through the back. If they break through you will do one of two things – you’ll scratch your band saw table and/or the nails will catch on the table making it tougher to move through the blade.

Set the band saw blade guard to just above the height of the stack and and cut out the parts.

While the stack is still together – via the tape – use a sander to clean up the saw marks.

Next use a piece of sandpaper and break the edges of the outside of the stack. Only break the edges that will not join to front leg (part I). Rounding those edges will prevent a good clean joint.

Take the stack apart and break the inside edges as you did for the outside edges.

Next use a small square and make a mark 3/8” in from the edge along the top of the arm support and along the rounded bottom of the part.

Use a square and draw a line bisecting the two screws hold made earlier when you cut the front leg (part I).

Move your square to the top of Part I and make another straight line.

Now you can use your marks made on the arm support rest (part J) to align the support with where it needs to go to match up with the arms that you will be making later.

I’ve taken a picture that shows how the marks make it easier to align the parts.

Next up is to drill the pilot holes and drive in the screws.

Cautionary note – In this particular spot I make sure to use the shorter 1.25” screws. If you use the longer screw you run the risk of breaking the screw used to attach the arm to the arm support.

I use a little trick in screwing the parts together. After I drill the first pilot hole I then put glue on the part and drive the screw just a little way through the front leg.

This allows me to realign the part exactly where it was. You can take the chance of drilling the pilot hole, then picking up a second drill, placing the screw into the hole and then picking up the drill to drive it in one act – I can’t do it. So I use that trick.

After driving the first screw – use it as a pivot to align the bottom of the part.

Finally, add plugs that go with the grain.

You are now ready to the let the plugs dry. Once dried sand them flat and get ready to make the back rest.

As always – your comments, questions or suggestions are appreciate.

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Mon, 16 Jan 2012 04:53:02 GMThttp://lumberjocks.com/Betsy/blog/27604BetsyBetsyAdirondack Chair Class #7: Correction and moving onto the slats and seat assemblyhttp://lumberjocks.com/Betsy/blog/27521
First – you may have noticed that my last post showed the slats being cut at 1.25 and not 1.5. That was wrong – the slats are 1.5” wide by 21” long. As a result you cannot get 16 slats out of a 1×6 – not sure how I came up with that – just was not paying attention as well as I should have. So now that that’s out of the way let’s move on to getting the slats drilled, beveled and placed.

You need a fence of some sort to make sure that each slat is drilled at the correct place on each end. This is my fence – just a piece of MDF with two boards at a 90 degree angle which keeps everything square.

You need to place the fence on the drill press table and clamp it into position so that the bit will enter at the right point.

Now with the 3/8” Forstener bit drill a screw hole on each end of all of the slats.

Next up is cutting the bevels. Your 13 slats go like this starting at the back of the char:

1. 20 degree bevel on one edge2. no bevel3. no bevel4. no bevel5. no bevel6. no bevel7. no bevel8. no bevel9. no bevel10. 20 degree bevel on both edges11. 15 degree bevel on both edges12. 30 degree bevel on one edge13. no bevel

Cautionary Note On any slat that is going to get a bevel – try to avoid slats with a knot at or near the edge like this one.

Cutting through the knot may make it come loose and leave you with a gouge in the side of your slat.

First up is cutting the 20 degree bevel for slat one. Use a good gauge to tilt your blade from 90 degrees to 70 degrees. I like my Wixie gauge.

Line your fence up so that the tooth of the blade will just cut through the corner of the slat.

You can check your accuracy by placing the slat against your plan. The new plans are much more accurate as being “life size” than the original old plans.

Once you cut your bevel – make sure you mark the bevel on the piece so you keep them straight.

While you have the blade tilted for the 20 degree bevel – do the slat that requires the 20 degrees on both edges. Then again you can check against your plan.

Now adjust your blade to cut the remaining bevels.

Now comes to the assembly portion of the job.

I use my saw’s fence as a holder for my one leg assembly. I place my front leg (part I) in line with the front of my saw’s table then use a small clamp to hold it in place.

Because the back of Part G is inside part I – you need to use a spacer between the part and the fence – then use another clamp to hold it in place.

Next you need to get a spacer cut to 19.5” to place between the back of the two part G.

I use one of the 21” slats at the front of the chair and then I make sure the second Part I is also even with the front of my table saw front. Then you need to gather up some 1/4” spacers.

I make my spacers out of some scrap 1/4” ply. Using the spacers place all the slats on the chair to be certain they fit correctly.

Now you place the first slat on the lines you drew on the Part G.

Now using your spacers place all the slats onto the chair seat assembly making sure you will have a good fit.

The spacing between slat 10 and 11 is one that you have to eyeball a little bit – if you use the 1/4” spacer you end up with too large of a space. It’s pretty easy to eyeball – once it is at the right location – you should be able to run your hand across the seat slats without having any high spots.

Place a small amount of glue on each end of the slat, place the slat using your spacers and with the 3/32nd bit drill the pilot holes for each slat. Once drilled drive in a #6 1.25” screw.

Cautionary Note Not drilling a pilot hole will create an opportunity to split the wood when you drive in the screw.

You will know that your chair is square if each slat is placed and none hang over the edges of Part G.

Now that all the slats are placed you need to get some plugs cut and placed.

Learning Point You don’t have to have really tall plugs – in fact you want to try to have the plugs just barely tall enough to bottom out in the screw hole and just come over the top of the slat.

Use a 3/8” plug cutter to cut enough plugs to fill in all the slats and the three holes where Part I and Part G where joined using dowel pins.

Once you’ve drilled your plugs you have to cut them out. One thing that will make the chair look nicer (and this is good for future projects of a higher quality) is to make the plug’s grain follow the grain of the piece being plugged. Once you have cut your plugs and removed them from the “mother board” you often cannot tell what the grain direction is. To make this easier on yourself – use a sharpie pen and simply draw a line on each plug.

Draw a line down the edge of your “mother board” at about the position that will be cut the plugs out.

Now so that the plugs don’t go flying all over the shop when you cut them out – I use blue painters tape to cover the plugs.

Take the board to the band saw and slice the board along your line. All that done here is what you should have.

Now place the plugs in each of the screw holes.

Painting the chair is a hard job because of the location between the slats. One option is to screw down one slat – skip a slat, screw down one, skip one, etc. This gives you a chance to paint the slats without working so hard at getting between the slats.

Here is some example shots of how I paint my chairs.

I have made a small jig to hold the slats that are not screwed down.

As you can see the jig is simply two scraps of wood with dowels inserted. I can then place the slats with the screws holes resting on the dowel pins. This gives me the support to hold the slats still and give me the space to paint them easily.

Okay so that’s it for this part. The next part will be assembling the back rest.